Two weeks ago, neither Mark Stone of Plainview nor Mark St. John of Peekskill had ever swung a golf club before - unless, said Stone, you count miniature golf or computer golf.

Nevertheless, both sank 10-foot putts on the Meadow Brook Club's Hole 17 to win $25,000 jackpots that they will split in half with Schneider Children's Hospital.

On Tuesday, August 3, Stone and St. John experienced the kind of pressure Senior PGA Tour professionals face in every tournament, as the two young men successfully tapped in their putts from a straight lie on the 17th green, with a large crowd and several senior pros watching.

"That's the biggest crowd that will ever watch me play golf," said Stone, 29, who works at the Woodbury accounting firm Marcum and Kliegman.

It was actually Mark Stone's father, Gerald Stone, who entered the contest. Contest rules allowed the senior Stone to select whomever he wished to make the putt, and so he chose his son.

Gerald Stone, explaining his generous decision, said, "I have two sons and they come first. They're my pride and joy, so let [one of] them have the honor - and pressure."

A week prior to Tuesday, Mark Stone went to the putting range, having borrowed a friend's putter, and practiced for his big moment. The practice may have helped, but in the end Stone just called it a "lucky shot."

St. John submitted his entry after hearing about the contest through a friend who works at the King Kullen in New Hyde Park. He, too, went out to practice last week.

"All of a sudden I'm a professional golfer for a week," said St. John.

At one point it was questionable if he could even grip a putter. Only two days after learning his entry was selected, he injured his hand breaking up a dog fight.

"The doctor wanted to put a cast on his whole hand," explained Michelle Kenneson, St. John's fiancée. After some pleading, however, "he said it was okay to leave two fingers out."

St. John admitted to being nervous before his money putt, but, he added, "the professional guys made me feel pretty comfortable."

With $12,500 each to call their own, are either of the two winners planning on taking some golf lessons? Asked that very question, Stone replied, "I'll have to get clubs, I guess, before I get the lessons."